Film Phase 4 — Multiverse Opens (2024–2025)

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Name: Spider-Man: No Way Home
Released: 2021-12-17
Duration: 148 min
Rating: 7.9
Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau

"Enter the Multiverse."

Released December 17, 2021 2h 28m ★ 7.9TMDB ★ Essential

Peter Parker is unmasked and no longer able to separate his normal life from the high-stakes of being a super-hero. When he asks for help from Doctor Strange the stakes become even more dangerous, forcing him to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man.

How to watch Watch the Tobey & Andrew Spider-Man films first for the full payoff.

Watch note

Peter asks Strange to make the world forget he's Spider-Man — the spell goes wrong and pulls in multiverse villains and both Tobey and Andrew's Spider-Men. Aunt May dies. All three Peters cure the villains. Strange wipes everyone's memory of Peter — he starts completely alone.

Why It Matters in the MCU

No Way Home is the most structurally ambitious Spider-Man film made to date, using multiverse mechanics not as a gimmick but as a mechanism to explore what the Spider-Man identity means across generations. The reunion moments between franchise iterations are earned rather than pandering because the film gives each returning character a complete emotional arc rather than a cameo. It commits to the hardest creative choice available to it: Peter Parker walks away with nothing — no mentor, no identity, no one who remembers him — which is exactly the right ending.

Watch These First

17 titles lead into Spider-Man: No Way Home — 38 hours in total, 12 of them essential.

Captain America: The First Avenger Essential 2h 4m ★ 7.0
Thor Essential 1h 55m ★ 6.8
The Avengers Essential 2h 23m ★ 8.1
Iron Man 3 2h 10m ★ 6.9
Thor: The Dark World 1h 52m ★ 6.5
Captain America: The Winter Soldier Essential 2h 16m ★ 7.7
Guardians of the Galaxy Essential 2h 1m ★ 7.9
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 2h 16m ★ 7.6
Avengers: Age of Ultron Essential 2h 21m ★ 7.3
Captain America: Civil War Essential 2h 27m ★ 7.4
Black Panther Essential 2h 14m ★ 7.4
Spider-Man: Homecoming 2h 13m ★ 7.3
Doctor Strange Essential 1h 55m ★ 7.4
Thor: Ragnarok Essential 2h 10m ★ 7.6
Avengers: Infinity War Essential 2h 29m ★ 8.2
Avengers: Endgame Essential 3h 2m ★ 8.2
Spider-Man: Far From Home 2h 9m ★ 7.4

Create a watch plan for these 17

Opens the planner with just these titles, so you can set your own pace.

Where It Fits in the MCU

Spider-Man: No Way Home sits at position 126 of 165 in the MCU's story-chronological order, placing it within the Phase 4 — Multiverse Opens (2024–2025) era. It is rated Essential — must-watch for following the main MCU narrative. Watching in story-chronological order provides the most coherent character development experience — individual arcs build naturally toward the franchise's major crossover events, with each film's post-credits scenes carrying forward into what follows.